Home

Privacy

Melbourne Business School ("MBS" or the School") respects the privacy of all individuals, and is bound by ten National Privacy Principles.

The School collects, receives, maintains and handles information of a personal nature concerning its award course students, non-award short course students, potential students, alumni, donors, faculty and general staff, its trust members, visiting faculty, exchange students, guest speakers, residential guests and its research subjects, in accordance with the requirements of the ten National Privacy Principles in the Commonwealth Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000.

MBS’s obligations to protect the privacy of personal information

These ten principles govern our personal information handling processes and procedures, covering collection, consent arrangements, confidentiality, storage and security, access and alteration, use and disclosure of personal and sensitive information. A summary of our obligations in relation to the personal information which we hold in our collections therefore includes the following:

we only collect personal information that is necessary for our functions or activities
we collect personal information lawfully and fairly
we collect personal information directly from an individual if it is reasonable and practicable to do so
we obtain consent to collect sensitive information unless specified exemptions apply.

At the time we collect personal information or as soon as practicable afterwards, we take reasonable steps to make an individual aware of:

the purposes for which the information is collected
that s/he can gain access to the information
the fact that we do not disclose the information to anyone outside the School
the departments within the School which use the information
the consequences of not providing the required information.

We take reasonable steps to ensure the individual is made aware of the factors noted above even if we have collected their personal information from someone else.

We only use personal information for the primary purpose of collection, or for specific secondary reasons directly related to the primary reason for collection and within the individual’s reasonable expectations, or when we have consent. We do not disclose either by discussion or record any of our collections of personal information to any other organisation.

We take reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

We take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

We take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information if we no longer need it for any purpose for which we may use or disclose the information.

We are open about our privacy policies and practices. We therefore have a document that is readily available to anyone who asks for it and which you are currently reading, which sets out our main policies on the way we manage personal information.

If an individual asks, we take reasonable steps to let them know, generally, what sort of personal information we hold, what purposes we hold it for and how we collect, use and disclose that information.

If an individual asks, we give access to the personal information we hold about them unless particular circumstances apply that limit the extent to which we can give access.

We only adopt, use or disclose a Commonwealth Government identifier if particular circumstances apply that allow us to do so.

With some exceptions, we only transfer personal information overseas if the country has privacy laws similar to the National Privacy Principles.

Purposes for which MBS collects personal information

The School’s primary purpose for collecting personal information is to administer and facilitate the progress of an award and non-award course student from enquiry, to application, selection and admission through to completion, graduation, career progression and alumni status; and to conduct research investigations.

We collect and store information so that we can process enrolments or enquiries, inform you of future activities or events and improve the service we provide to you. The only organisations that may use this information are Melbourne Business School and the data service providers we engage from time to time. You may choose not to provide certain details, as is your right, but as a result we may not be able to process your enrolment or enquiry, or complete the process for which we were collecting the information.

Within this broad organisational purpose, each department and research centre has its own specific, related purpose for collecting the personal information that is necessary for it to carry out its functions and activities.

For example, MBS's Career Services division collects personal information, such as name, gender, date of birth, electronic, postal and telephone contact details, education, work experience, career aspirations, general interests and availability for employment, about students who are nearing completion of their degree and have requested that their resumes be placed online for job search purposes as participants in the School's online job posting system.

What information MBS collects and how

The School typically collects all personal information directly from the individuals with whom it interacts, via hard copy documents such as application forms, and various electronic forms.

The kind of personal information collected varies according to the functions and activities of the department and the academic discipline of the research centre collecting and using the information. This could include one or more of the following: name, postal address, email address, telephone number, date-of-birth, credit card number for payment of services, vocational and employment details and history, and academic or educational history. Additionally, it could include sensitive information such as membership of professional bodies, academic results, Graduate Management Admissions Test results, remuneration, thesis examiner reports, personal references, extra curricular activities, nationality, country of birth, country of permanent residence/citizenship, and languages spoken; or, research specific sensitive and non sensitive personal information from or about human subjects, obtained via interviews, surveys, observations of behaviour, questionnaires, audio/video taping, administering tests or by using archival data in which individuals are identifiable.

Personal information is stored securely

Within the School, the greatest quantity of personal information is typically held in electronic data bases or hard copy document form, but information may also sometimes be contained in other record formats such as photographs or videotapes.

As a general rule, we treat personal information as confidential and sensitive personal information as highly confidential. The security measures which MBS has in place to protect the personal information it holds from misuse and loss, or unauthorised access, modification and disclosure, and its procedures for the disposal and retention of personal information are in accordance with this security classification system.

Only authorised users can access the School’s personal information collections and access is only for approved purposes. The School also utilises physical security measures for hard copy paper and electronic holdings of information, and maintains computer and network security devices and systems.

Access to personal information

MBS provides the individual with access to the personal information it holds about that individual, upon request. Requests for access to personal information should be directed to:

The Dean and Director on + 61 3 9349 8125 or the appropriate Department Head within the School, by telephoning reception on + 61 3 9349 8100. All calls will be directed to the relevant office.

Alternatively, access can be arranged by completing the relevant electronic form “Request For Access to Personal Information”.

The School will respond to a request for access as soon as practicable, and, in any case, all requests will be dealt with within a maximum of 14 days, provided that granting access is straightforward. If granting access is complicated, the time taken to respond to a request may take up to 30 days.

Trans border data flows

The School transfers personal information about students to equivalent institutions in foreign countries, with the express consent of the individual. For example, for students who come from an equivalent institution in a foreign country to attend an exchange program at MBS, transcripts of the students academic results while studying at MBS, including their name and contact details, are sent to the students “home” institution. Similarly, for MBS students going on an exchange program to an equivalent institution in a foreign country, MBS transfers transcripts of the student’s academic results, their name and contact details, and resumes if requested by the student, to the institution at which they will be an exchange student.

MBS also transfers personal information to individuals in a foreign country when international students, who have applied to study at MBS and have been accepted, are sent confirmation of enrolment documents, which form an important component of the students visa arrangements.

Privacy complaints

MBS has implemented a complaints handling process so that anyone who has a complaint about a possible breach of privacy in the way their personal information has been handled during its collection, use, storage or disposal, can have that complaint dealt with. Anyone with a complaint should contact the person or department at MBS that they have been dealing with, or the Directors Office, in order to make arrangements for lodging their complaint. A complaint must be made in writing, preferably by using the School’s Form for “Lodging a Complaint About the Handling of Personal Information”.

The School can be contacted in the following ways :

Melbourne Business School
200 Leicester Street,
Carlton 3053
Victoria

Directors office
Tel: + 61 3 9349 8125
Fax: + 61 3 9349 8224
Email: p.king@mbs.edu
Website: www.mbs.edu

Reception
Tel: +61 3 9349 8100 (for direction to the relevant staff person or department)

We acknowledge receipt of complaints within 48 hours providing we have current and relevant contact details, and we try to resolve every complaint as soon as practicable but within 14 days, providing the complaint and its resolution is relatively straightforward. If the complaint and its resolution are not straightforward we contact the person lodging the complaint and provide them with an estimate of how long we will need to resolve the complaint, which can be from 30 days up to a maximum of 60 days.

If anyone is not satisfied with the response they receive from our internal complaints process or we cannot resolve the complaint, or, where a reasonable time (usually 60 days) for a reply from us has passed, the individual has the option of taking his or her complaint to the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner which will conciliate the complaint. (Privacy Hotline 1300 363 992; www.privacy.gov.au )

For further information on MBS’s privacy policies and procedures

In addition to the document you are currently reading, Melbourne Business School has developed and documented a manual of its Privacy Policies and Procedures for the management and handling of personal information, based on the ten national Privacy Principles enacted in the Commonwealth privacy legislation that applies to private sector organizations throughout Australia.

You may view our detailed Privacy Policies and Procedures document at our offices at 200 Leicester, Carlton, Victoria, or telephone + 61 3 9349 8100.

MBS has also prepared a Website Privacy Policy Statement dealing with privacy issues and the application of the ten National Privacy Principles to our website, information technology and the internet. You may view our Website Privacy Policy.